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Hypocrisy Sampler: April 2017 Edition

WC has long abandoned the Hypocrite of the Month feature; it was too difficult to single one prize-winning specimen out of the throngs of examples. And it was pretty depressing to sort through all that hypocrisy every month.

But the times have changed and rampant hypocrisy now seems to be the new normal. So WC will provide a sampler of some of the more egregious recent examples. Another sign of the times.

Rev. Kenneth Adkins

Kenneth Adkins is a Georgia-based preacher and anti-gay activist. He had a few moments of fame following the shootings at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. He claimed that homosexuals got “what they deserve.” Well, a jury found Reverend – pause here to spit to the side – Adkins guilty of eight counts of child molestation this week. Adkins has helped lead a fight against expanding Jacksonville’s anti-discrimination law to protect LGBT people. In 2015 when he posted pictures on Twitter that compared other black church leaders who supported expanding the law to slaves being sold on auction blocks. He also argued against offering equal bathroom access to transgender people, saying sexual predators would use such measures to find victims. WC supposes he would know.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley resigned Monday rather than face impeachment and pled guilty to two misdemeanor campaign violations. Bentley, a 74-year-old Republican and one-time Baptist deacon, was a staunch family-values conservative who won two terms partly because of his reputation for moral rectitude that arose during an investigation of his alleged affair with a top aide.

Famously, steamy messages between the Governor and his aide were intercepted by Bentley’s then-wife, Dianne Bentley. Governor Bentley had given her his state-issued iPad. So, yeah, technological ignorance, too.

Former Governor Bentley joins former Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard, who left office in 2016 after being convicted on ethics charges, and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was suspended from his post last year over an order opposing same-sex marriage.

Maybe it’s something in the water in Alabama?

No sampler of recent hypocrisy would be complete without one of the President’s mealymouthed utterances. Let’s take the 59 cruise missiles the President ordered be launched against Syria. Yes, Assad’s use of sarin against his own people is a shocking war crime. But when Assad last used war gases against his own people in the Obama Administration, the Trumpster sent at least five tweets – the closest thing to a formal policy the Trumpster has developed – insisting Obama take no retaliatory action. This tweet is representative.

So what is the difference between 2013 and 2017? Only the guy in Oval Office. It doesn’t matter what you think should be done about the disaster in Syria. It’s the stink of hypocrisy. WC notes to his readers that it was very hard to pick just one Trumpster example.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

But the champion hypocrite in recent weeks is Senator Orin Hatch (R, 19th Century). It was Senator Hatch who pitched a hissy fit at Democrats’ efforts to filibuster Judge Gorsuch’s supreme court nomination. Here’s a small selection of quotes from Hatch’s tirade against the Democrats: “I don’t remember us treating their nominees this way,” Hatch complained. “Assuming that they don’t support Judge Gorsuch, then they can vote against him.” The gentleman from Utah wasn’t done. “We’ll see if they will come and do the job that they’ve been elected and sworn to do,” he said. “I’m very disappointed in this type of crap. I mean, my God, there’s no excuse for it.” WC clearly recalls who led the effort to stonewall President Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court, denying him even a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, the committee Senator Hatch chaired at the time.

Bah. Now WC is going to have to have a shower to wash off the slime from just talking about these alleged public servants.